Recently I had a chance to visit with Dr. Kristine Mackey, the parent of three Ignatius alumnae. During our conversation, Kris was
reminiscing about a group of the Ignatius faculty members who she thought of as
pillars of this excellent staff. Coincidentally, that was about the same time
that I had read Maureen Lonergan’s
response to a question I had posed to her.
Maureen was named Educator-of-the-Year
this year, so I asked her what she thought was her secret. What set her apart from others.
I have been on a quest to determine what special qualities those
who are considered “iconic” might possess.
Maureen gave me a wonderful response, one that could be a whole article
by itself, so I’ve tried to take the most salient points to present here. She said, “My
goal every year is to get students excited about something in science. I
want students to talk about science at the dinner table. I want them to
show their little sister their design for an animal behavior lab or ask their
friends if they have heard of the crazy parasite that can live under your skin.
I want students to ask questions, bring in extra articles or ideas, and
engage fully in science as a process. I am still learning how to be a
better teacher, and it's a daily challenge to figure out how to best reach and
motivate students.“
Every time I ask another outstanding
teacher his or her secret, it seems that I get a different answer. I’m convinced that there is no finite set of
qualities that each top individual possesses.
For every quality that I think of as necessary, I can think of some
members of that group who don’t have that quality, but a host of different
ones.
Of course Dr. Mackey’s list iconic
teachers, which spans from the mid-90’s, would be somewhat different from mine which
goes back to the early 60’s, or Frank Raispis’ which goes back to the early
‘40’s. Frank’s list would include Father
Grant, after whom the Educator-of-the-Year is named, and Dr. Ralph
Mailiard, after whom the athletic field is named, along with too many
others to list here. It should also be
mentioned that being named Educator-of-the-Year doesn’t, in itself, doesn’t automatically
make one an “icon”. After all, the award
wasn’t in existence until the early ‘70’s, when Raispis was the first awardee.
Switching gears to “news-letter”
mode, as the school year ended, there were several changes at 1076. From my vantage point, most dramatically,
Anne Baker, the secretary to the Principal for many years, retired. As I understand it, Anne stayed on one year
longer than she had intended to help the new principal, Ms. Latka, settle in to
her position.
Additionally, Jim Prunty, who had
been Athletic Director for 14 years left and has been replaced by Paul Ickes. Best wishes to both Jim and Paul.
Finally, Don Hoffman, who has been
the school’s archivist for several years, is giving up the reins to Dr. Ray
Heisler, a long-time member of the classics department.
